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Study Reveals Widening Racial Disparity in Breast Cancer Mortality in 35 U.S. Cities
Unequal access to diagnosis and treatment results in deaths of 1,710 black women annually
A national study published today found a black: white disparity in breast cancer mortality in 39 of the most populous U.S. cities, with 35 of those cities experiencing a widening disparity over a 20-year period from 1990 to 2009. The 2014 Racial Disparity in Breast Cancer Mortality Study is the largest study of its kind and the first to examine racial disparities in breast cancer mortality in 50 cities over two decades. The study, released by the Avon Foundation for Women and published in Cancer Epidemiology, found that 1,710 black women – approximately five women per day – die on average annually largely due to racial disparities in screening and breast cancer treatment.
The U.S. cities with the largest disparities are (in order of disparity ratio): Memphis, Tenn.; Los Angeles, Calif.; Wichita, Kan.; Houston, Texas; Boston, Mass.; Denver, Colo.; Chicago, Ill.; Phoenix, Ariz.; Dallas, Texas; Indianapolis, Ind.
For national and city-specific data, please visit: http://www.avonfoundation.org/causes/breast-cancer-crusade/disparities-study/
2014 Racial Disparity in Breast Cancer Mortality Study Findings
The 2014 study, conducted by Sinai Urban Health Institute and the Avon Foundation for Women, expands on a 2012 study that examined the racial disparity in breast cancer mortality over a three-year period (2005-2007) in the 24 largest U.S. cities. In an effort to see how these disparities changed over a longer time period, this new study analyzed the number of breast cancer deaths reported across four five-year intervals between 1990 and 2009 in the 50 largest U.S. cities; data were available for 41 of the most populous 50 cities.
The study found that in most cities the white death rate declined between 1990 and 2009, while the black death rate did not change substantially, resulting in an increasing disparity. Although the death rates declined for both white and black women in the United States as a whole over this time period, the white death rate decreased twice as much, leading the researchers to identify four key factors that led to this racial disparity in breast cancer mortality: differential access to screening, quality of the screening process, access to treatment, and quality of treatment.
Steve Whitman, Ph.D., director of Sinai Urban Health Institute and the study's senior author, explained the disparity: "The geographical variation and growth in the black: white disparity over time shows that genetic factors comprise only a very small portion of the breast cancer mortality disparity. Rather, we believe a more logical explanation for the disparity is that certain technological advances related to screening and treatment that became available in the 1990s – such as digital mammography, advances in surgery and new drugs for treatment – have been less accessible to black women, who are disproportionately poor and un- or under-insured and less able to obtain access to these advances."
Key Findings
· Few of the cities had a black: white disparity during the first time period (1990-1994), yet by the most recent time period (2005-2009), 39 of the 41 cities analyzed had a black: white disparity in breast cancer mortality, 23 of which were statistically significant
· Between 1990 and 2009, 35 cities saw an increase in the disparity during the 20-year period
· 16 cities trended towards a black: white disparity in breast cancer survival, but did not reach statistical significance (likely due to sample size)
· Memphis has the highest disparity of the 41 largest cities analyzed, followed by Los Angeles
· New York has the smallest disparity of the 50 largest cities analyzed, followed by Baltimore
"The 2014 Racial Disparity in Breast Cancer Mortality Study has made it evident that a large racial disparity for breast cancer mortality exists in the United States. While the size of that disparity varies, it exists in virtually every one of the cities analyzed – and it appears to be growing," said Marc Hurlbert, Ph.D., executive director of the Avon Breast Cancer Crusade. "Public and private institutions in these cities need to join together to address these disparities. The burden cannot be left only to the 'safety net' hospitals and health centers."
After the 2012 disparities study that showed Memphis had the highest disparity of the largest 25 U.S. cities, the Avon Foundation funded work at Memphis' Methodist Hospital to identify the key barriers that could be driving local disparities. The report from the study in Memphis will be released March 18 at the Avon Foundation Breast Cancer Forum in Washington, D.C. and will inform future Avon funding in that city.
Five Recommendations to Reduce The Risk of Breast Cancer
Dr. Marc Hurlbert provides five tips about how women can reduce their risk of developing breast cancer:
1. Seek access to early detection programs and screening
– Low-income, uninsured and underinsured women can visit www.cdc.gov/cancer/breast to find low-cost breast cancer screenings across the United States.
2. Be knowledgeable of family and personal history
– If close relatives such as a mother, aunt or grandmother – or even male relatives – have had breast cancer, speak with a primary care doctor or Ob/Gyn about your specific risks and screening options.
– Alert your doctor to personal risk factors such as childbearing history, your hormone replacement use, and radiation exposure to the chest if treated for lymphoma as a child
3. Reduce alcohol use
– Regular consumption of one or more drinks a day for women is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer.
4. Maintain a healthy weight
– Staying healthy lowers the odds of getting breast cancer. Obesity and being overweight are linked to a higher risk of breast cancer, especially after menopause. To help maintain a healthy weight, eat more vegetables and fruits and limit red meat consumption.
5. New moms should breastfeed immediately after birth
– Experts recommend nursing a newborn within an hour of giving birth, if possible, and not supplementing with formula while in the hospital. Doctors recommend new mothers should breastfeed for at least six months. After a woman gives birth, she has a slightly increased risk for developing breast cancer over the next five to ten years (known as pregnancy-associated breast cancer).
Study Methodology
The researchers – led by Bijou Hunt, the study's main methodologist – measured racial disparity by calculating non-Hispanic black: non-Hispanic white breast cancer mortality rate ratios in each of the cities analyzed. A disparity ratio of greater than one indicates a higher black mortality rate; a ratio of less than one indicates a higher white death rate. In accordance with the our previous 2012 study's findings, results showed that some cities, such as Detroit and Las Vegas, have no disparity because mortality rates from breast cancer for both white and black women are unacceptably high. In contrast, New York, for example, has low mortality rates for both black and white women and continues to have the smallest disparity among the most populous cities. This study demonstrates the geographical variation in disparities and that the black: white breast cancer mortality disparity expanded in the majority of cities over the observed 20-year period (1990 – 2009).
About the Avon Breast Cancer Crusade
The Avon Breast Cancer Crusade, which launched in 1992 and is led by the U.S.-based Avon Foundation for Women, has placed Avon and the Avon Foundation for Women at the forefront of the fight against breast cancer; today, Avon is the leading corporate supporter of the cause globally. Avon breast cancer programs in more than 50 countries have donated more than $815 million for research and advancing access to care, regardless of a person's ability to pay. Avon awards funding to beneficiaries ranging from leading cancer centers to community-based grassroots breast health programs to support breast cancer research and access to care. The Crusade has enabled more than 18 million women globally to receive free mammograms and breast cancer screenings, educated more than 145 million women about breast cancer, and funded promising research into the causes of breast cancer and ways to prevent the disease. The Avon Foundation raises funds for the Crusade through the sale of Avon "Pink Ribbon" products, and through events such as the U.S. Avon Walk for Breast Cancer series being held in 2014 in Houston (April 12-13); Washington (May 3-4); Boston (May 17-18); Chicago (May 31-June 1); San Francisco (July 12-13); Santa Barbara, Calif. (September 6-7); New York (October 18-19); and Charlotte, N.C. (October 25-26). Visit www.avonfoundation.org for more information.
About Sinai Health System
Sinai Health System, a Chicago-based private, not-for-profit organization, is comprised of seven member organizations: Mount Sinai Hospital, Holy Cross Hospital, Sinai Children's Hospital, Schwab Rehabilitation Hospital, Sinai Medical Group, Sinai Community Institute and Sinai Urban Health Institute. The system has over 800 physicians on its hospital medical staffs, 695 licensed beds, 100,000+ annual emergency department patient visits and eight physician residency training programs. www.sinai.org


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I'm working on my company's iPhone App and now I'm looking into the logistics involved with getting it to be an iPad native App as well (Universal App).
Without going into too much detail, the App guides the user through performing a task, sort of like a wizard, and the result is submitted at the end. On the iPhone I'm using a NavigationController, pushing each ViewController onto the stack, then when the result is submitted I pop back several ViewControllers until I'm back at the beginning. Simple.
I've had a work-issued iPad for about a day now but I'm noticing the prevailing metaphor seems to be the split-view due to the added screen real estate. So as an example, whereas on the iPhone the Settings App shows a list of sections to change and then selecting one drills down to it, which replaces the list on the screen, on the iPad the Settings App shows that list on the left side of the screen, it never leaves, and the right side of the screen shows the selected section.
My question is - does this sort of navigation make sense for a step-by-step wizard-type App? The nature of the task doesn't necessarily preclude the concept of "jumping around" but the final ViewController has to submit the results and I'm concerned that this might confuse people (that the data entered in previous "sections" of the split view is now gone because they've submitted it).
What should a "wizard" style interface on the iPad look like, and does anyone have some examples they like?
Thanks. Also, I'm not sure which of the SE sites this is most appropriate for so if it belongs on Apple.SE or SO please let me know.

subset: commoncrawl


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A former chef, George Stephens decided to leave the catering industry and go into the supply of quality food rather than cooking it - now his fish shop attracts an enthusiastic clientele, keen to enjoy the wide variety of fresh fish and shellfish he stocks and the sound advice given by friendly and knowledgeable staff.
Known as both 'The Fish Market' and 'Stephens Fish Market', this successful family business has expanded and now includes a newer shop in the busy university town of Maynooth, Co Kildare.
George Stephens Jnr was a finalist is the inaugural Young Fishmonger of the Year Awards in 2013, created by BIM to recognise and reward young fishmongers.


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You might have heard that Sony Online Entertainment was now giving away Everquest II to Fileplanet Subscribers, which we suggest may be one plank of an overarching strategy. Though it rarely gets to the final stage we detail in the strip, simply handing out the client for fee-based games happens all the time: Puzzle Pirates operates under this model, as does Meridian 59. Same with A Tale In The Desert. Gunbound, the self-proclaimed "Shooting game of new generation," used to be funded by players who paid a premium for avatar customization items. Might still be true.
For smaller scale MMOs, especially from Korea, "giving away the farm" isn't such a big gamble when the farm itself must then be rented on a monthly basis. Even then, it's rare to see it from supposedly healthy "marquee" brands of the MMO space. EQ2 has recently been altered to give new characters much greater control over their destinies, something they probably want people to know about. But they've also got Kingdom of Sky coming out, and Desert of Flames on store shelves already. Radio Shack used to give away free flashlights that used no less than six D batteries, which they were more than happy to sell you. It may be that a similar procedure is being employed here.
The full game is only twenty bucks at retail these days, and a month of Fileplanet is three or so - if you were considering trying it anyway, it's an option. Then again, Sony's planning to sell every MMO they own in a single package for forty bucks, and you could subscribe to all of them for a single fee. I can sense that you are slavering at the prospect.
Gabriel has nothing polite to say about the game, whose three and a half gigs I believe he just uninstalled. The aesthetic - and I think he would assert that Everquest II has no unifying visual theme - will always be an insuperable barrier. When he hates something, typically that is my cue to dig deeper than he has and find the buried but ameliorating quality. But after playing World of Warcraft for well over a year, I'm not itching to bind myself in service to some new master - exquisite crafting or no. Call me when the heavy hitters of the Massive genre have moved their timelines to a point somewhere near the invention of the combustion engine.
Whatever persistence I crave is satisfied perfectly well by City of Villains, but my evenings are largely spent brawling in unregulated Blast Clubs that roil in the shadows of major American cities.
I was waiting to import a DS Lite until after the D.I.C.E. conference, as I had a reasonably strong assumption they would announce the final colors there, and preorder options beyond Crystal White would magically appear. I went almost all the way through the process, populating fields with my most intimate data, but ultimately closing the browser - interrupting the scenario at a point dangerously near its sensual apex.
The need felt so urgent when I began filling out that form, spurred by those prancing portables whirling on this page. Indeed, there is still a chance my resolve may fail.
(CW)TB out.


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Will wordpress run cron if I have scheduled emails to send? Seems like if no visit (request) is made to the site, scheduled tasks won't run and therefore emails won't be sent eg. hourly.
According to current situation, if there is no visit to the site for few hours ( and than visit is made) than all scheduled emails will be sent at the same time
How can I prevent this, is there a plugin to add cron task?


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Rule #1 - Be Patient - Rule #2 - Don't ask when, if you don't contribute - Rule #3 - You have coding skills - LinuxMCE's small brother is available: http://www.agocontrol.com
Hi Rob,Can you be specific about what Myth settings are changed/wrong? I can have Radu look into changing the user permissions--I wasn't aware that we had modified them.
Hi Rob,Enjoy your vacation! I got another message from a Myth user yesterday asking about add-ons. Admittedly our Myth integration isn't that good. We don't support the plugins and we the way we control the Myth frontend isn't elegant. What would really help, though, is to have some support from the Myth team. With VDR it seems there's interest from their developers. So together we can do a lot since they know VDR well and we know Pluto well. But in Myth's case we're isolated. So maybe if some of our users tell the Myth guys they want this integration then we can get a Myth developer guru to work with us and improve the integration.Aaron


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Michael Haneke Collection
The Movies:
Kino Video has compiled seven of their single disc releases showcasing the films of controversial Austrian director Michael Haneke and bundled them into one singular boxed set entitled, appropriately enough, The Michael Haneke Collection. Those who own the single disc releases will find no need to bother with this collection as the discs and their contents are identical, the only difference being the packaging (the discs here are in slimline cases as opposed to standard keepcases). For those not familiar with the cinema of Haneke, his world can tend to be a very grim place but there's absolutely no denying the power and the impact that some of his better films and even a few of his lesser movies can contain.
The Piano Teacher:
The first film in the set features lovely Isabelle Huppert as a Parisian piano teacher named Erika who specializes in the music of Schubert. As we get to know her, it soon becomes obvious that she's seriously repressed in the bedroom. This has a fairly serious trickle down effect into much of her personal life and while she's able to get some of her frustrations out through her playing, she's definitely in need of an outlet. Making Erika's life even more repressed is the fact that despite her age (she'd be in her late thirties one could guess) she shares an apartment with her mother (Annie Girardot). She has her own room in the apartment but chooses to share her mothers room, sleeping in a separate bed only a few feet away. When not near her mother and left to her own devices, however, Erika shows a different side. We see her perusing adult video stores and even entering a peepshow booth, later rummaging through the garbage cans and scouring for what previous male customers have left behind.
Soon, Erika meets a young man studying engineering at the nearby university. Named Walter (Benoit Magimel), this man is truly passionate about the piano and is quite a good player himself. He quickly finds himself rather taken with Erika, and after a few meetings, the two begin a strange relationship together and Walter, considerably younger than Erika, finds he isn't at all ready for the kind of commitment that Erika is expecting from him. She soon manages to trap Walter in a series of power games where she holds all the cards. It's obvious that Erika is starting to come out of her shell...
Fairly explicit and at times quite disturbing, The Piano Teacher is also extremely well directed and it's a film that resonates with the viewer for some time after the end credits run. At the forefront of the film's success is the fantastic performance from Isabelle Huppert. Before things start to spiral she's perfectly cast as the rather spinsterly looking Erika but once the shy demeanor begins to erode she's just as convincing as the controlling and manipulative woman who bubbles just below the calm, cool surface of the character. Despite what her character does, however, Huppert manages to bring a genuine sense of humanity to her part that allows us to feel for Erika. Even when it all starts to hit the fan in the later part of the movie, it's hard not to pity the woman just a little bit. Girardot and Magimel are also very good in the film, but they're really there to prop up Huppert's fantastic performance.
Despite a few slow scenes and a couple of minor pacing issues, Haneke keeps the film rolling along at a good clip and he more or less lets his actors do the bulk of the work. The story unfolds slowly and it requires us to concentrate and think on what we're seeing and as such it might not register with the attention deficit crowd that seems to make up the bulk of the movie going public these days, but for those who appreciate a twisted slow burn, The Piano Teacher is a completely rewarding top-notch arthouse thriller.
Funny Games:
One of Haneke's better known pictures, Funny Games, follows Georg (Ulrich Muhe) and Anna (Susanne Lohtar) and their young son son Schorschi (Stefan Clapczynski). The three have recently arrived at their house on the lake and Georg is fairly preoccupied with getting his new boat in working order, the key to the success of the family's vacation plans. While Anna is in the kitchen, a strange man wearing white gloves arrives and asks her to borrow a couple of eggs. Things become even more curious when a second man arrives and begins obsessing over Georg's golf clubs.
The two men start referring to one another as Peter and Paul, and it soon becomes obvious that there's something wrong - these guys don't intend to leave. Georg comes back from his boat-related distractions and tries to get the two men out of the home but the conflict soon becomes violent and the family find themselves being held hostage by this pair of unstable criminals bent on forcing the three of them to join in on their funny games.
A strange mix of influences creeps into Funny Games. Obviously, seventies nasties like Last House On The Left are owed a debt but so too is the more recent French satire, Man Bites Dog. Haneke puts the viewer in the position not to identify with the family so much as in the position to identify with the antagonists. We're pulled along for the ride and almost made willing participants in the carnage that ensues as the killers talk right to the camera, addressing us directly. As such, we become involved in the madness and in some ways, it's almost as if we're provoking them to push the envelope and get nastier and nastier as the film progresses.
A common argument against the film is that we don't care about the family, but in a way that's part of the point of the picture. If we're to question why we're watching this and if we're to be forced to side with the antagonists why would we want to sympathize with the victims? If the killers are going to see them as nothing more than play things, should we be concerned with their well being if we're to see things from the killers' points of view?
Haneke avoids falling into exploitation movie territory by putting almost all of the violence off screen, but the audio effects used in place of gory visuals more than make up for the lack of actual on-screen bloodshed. Haneke employs a few other unexpected quirks in the picture, toying with our preconceived notions of what should or should not happen in a horror movie and just as importantly, how it should happen. Funny Games isn't completely successful, as there are moments where the film almost feels like its talking down to its audience rather than asking us to contemplate things for ourselves, but it's certainly a thought-provoking picture for most of its running time and it's a well made and disturbing examination of violence and its effects.
Code Unknown:
The full title of the third film in this set is Code Unknown: Incomplete Tales Of Several Journeys and there's a reason, that becomes fairly clear as the movie goes on, why Haneke chose the longer title for his picture. At its core, the film is really a series of vignettes about a random group of people and their attempts to make what they can out of life.
We follow an actress named Anne (Juliette Binoche) who finds some success in the performing arts but never quite makes it to the height of popularity she'd like. Anne's boyfriend, George (Thierry Neuvic), makes his living as a photographer but finds himself rather shaken by his last assignment where he traveled to Eastern Europe to document the war. George's brother is being groomed by their father to inherit and take over the family farm once the patriarch can no longer take care of it, but it's not what he wants to do with his life. A lady who illegally immigrated from Romania to France finds her life as a street beggar altered by her interactions with these people and with an African man employed as a teacher who enjoys fighting for the downtrodden.
From the opening scene where a small group of deaf children are playing a game of charades to the finale, which packs a bit of an emotional punch, Haneke is obviously trying to make a statement about the way that people communicate with one another or, in certain scenes, the ways that they do not communicate with one another when they should. Each of the central characters in the film interacts with one another in some way and these interactions and communications have a trickle down effect that obviously affects the other players - just as our actions in real life affect those around us.
The first part of the film is really just a few different glimpses into the lives of these characters and initially, there's really no story. That changes as the film progresses but much of the film remains simple looks, almost voyeuristic peeks, into the day to day activities of the cast of characters. While this grounds the work in the real world, it doesn't always make for riveting viewing. There are times where it almost feels like Haneke is intentionally boring us, trying to grind into our psyches the monotony of day to day life. It makes for interesting food for thought, though it's not what most of us would consider exciting entertainment.
Thankfully, even during these slower moments, the film always looks good. A scene where a tractor drives through a field isn't the most exciting thing ever shot but it is captured in such a way that it proves to be rather symbolic, its trail representing the divides between certain characters in the film. Moments like this stick with you and allow you to forget about the slower parts of the film and the random, disjointed narrative structure. It's a film that should be enjoyed as a few unusual slices of life rather than a standard narrative piece. Not for all tastes, to be certain, but rather well made and enjoyable in its own odd way.
The Castle:
Based on the unfinished story by Franz Kafka, Haneke made this film for Hungarian television in 1997. K (Ulrich Muhe) is a young man who arrives in a small village that surrounds a lofty castle. He heads over to the inn hoping to obtain a room for the night but the innkeeper tells him that the rooms are all full. He takes pity on him and offers him a mattress in the bar to sleep on. This doesn't go over well with some of the locals, however, and soon he's assaulted by two other men who, after the attack, are upset to learn that K has actually been hired to survey the castle and its lands.
K's two oafish assistants show up the next day. Having forgotten his surveying equipment they more or less just get in his way throughout the day. Later K hits it off with a woman named Frieda (Susanne Lothar) who works at the bar. He drills her for information about some of the castle officials who she knows, and then later they have sex behind the bar, unaware that K's assistants are peering at them the entire time. Frieda and K are found out and Frieda is fired from her job, leaving K responsible for her wellbeing. Still waiting to hear from the castle officials who hired him regarding what exactly it is he's supposed to be doing, and as the castle continues to refuse him an audience, be begins to grow frustrated.
When K is told that his services were hired by accident, he is forced to accept a position as a school janitor in order to make ends meet and take care of Frieda. He begrudgingly toils away at the job, periodically finding distractions with the local ladies, all the while hoping that he'll be granted entrance to the castle and that things will work themselves out.
Odd editing, fade outs to black screens and a minimalist soundtrack (all staples of Haneke's filmography by this point in the game) play a big part in the look and the tone of the picture, which is a fairly grim story in and of itself. Chronicling one man's struggle against a system that seems to be in place only to bring him down, The Castle is an odd and rather somber character study documenting the futility of K's attempts. In typical Haneke fashion, the film moves rather slowly but it does build nicely and the conclusion is an interesting and wholly appropriate one. The film fails to resonate as strongly as Haneke's theatrical films, at least the ones included in this collection, but it's definitely worth seeing, particularly for those interested in the always unusual way in which Kafka's work seems to be adopted for the screen. It would seem that Haneke's filmography and Kafka's writing have much more in common than just the themes we see on the surface, as their styles are linked in many different ways as are their rather bleak world views and thoughts on the shortcomings of general society.
Benny's Video:
Haneke's second feature film, Benny's Video, is not only one of his better known (and rather infamous) pictures, it's also one of his most successful and most unnerving.
Benny (Arno Frisch) is a young boy who obsesses over his video collection. One tape in particular, which features graphic footage of a man and his partner binding then and electrocuting a pig to death, holds a strange fascination for the boy. He watches it repeatedly, endlessly looping the footage over and over again and pausing just as the pig dies. He wakes up one morning and heads down the road to the video store hoping to find something new that gives him the same strange satisfaction as the pig snuff but he comes home empty handed.
The next time he heads back to the video store he meets a girl (Ingrid Stassner). They hit it off and he asks her if she'd like to come back to his house and watch some movies with him. She agrees, and off they go. As the two enjoy one another's company, she peruses his video library and eventually he decides to show her his favorite film. When it's over, we realize that Benny has actually stolen an electrical gun from a local butcher similar to the one seen in the video and that he intends to test it out on his new found friend.
Although it's minimalist in certain ways - there's not much of a soundtrack and the cinematography is deceptively simple and not particularly flashy at all - the film packs one hell of a punch. Interesting that Haneke uses an exceptionally violent and unsettling film to point his finger at the impact that violence in the media can have on viewers. We're forced to spend the bulk of our time with Benny as he goes about his business and experiences, first hand, the implications of what is happening to him, because of him, and around him. It's an ugly place to be and a very uncomfortable journey to make but the strength of the visuals and the unsettling power of the narrative cannot be denied. Haneke wants the audience to hurt, he wants us to feel something, good or bad, while watching the film and so he ensures that the picture hits with enough blunt force that we can't evade its impact.
Like in Funny Games, much of the violence takes place off camera, letting the audio effects disturb us. What we do see generally comes from the point of view of Benny's video camera. Benny's camera documents his own personal downward spiral, and in many ways it plays accomplice to him. Arno Frisch (who Haneke would use again in Funny Games) does an excellent job in the lead, and for a part with so few spoken lines he does a great job of portraying his feelings through body language, quirky movements, gestures and expressions.
The Seventh Continent:
Haneke's feature film debut is the story of Georg (Dieter Berner) and Anna (Birgit Doll), a married couple with a young daughter, Eva. Life is good for the pair, as Georg is doing very well at his job and the two are obviously very much in love with one another and as happy as they possibly could be with their child.
After time, however, Georg and Anna begin to realize how boring their typical, upper class existence really is. Hit hard with this realization, the family basically decides it's time to demolish everything that they've worked so hard to acquire, and so that's exactly what they do. They've become tired of their routine, and as such their typical family unit explodes leaving them to wonder if they'll ever be able to rebuild.
Told over the period of a few years, The Seventh Continent, like much of the director's output, is very much a minimalist film. There are no flashy edits or sweeping camera shots, in fact much of the picture is shot using close ups to give it an intimately claustrophobic feeling. The film definitely has a fly-on-the-wall feel to it that makes it seem as much like a documentary as it does a work of fiction. Haneke's use of very basic camera work and the lack of a real soundtrack completely ground the picture in our own reality, making the events that pan out all the more interesting.
Very much a critique of the European upper class society, the movie, in typical Haneke fashion, is quite grim and unrelenting. The first half plays through without many surprises but once the middle of the film arrives, it definitely takes on a very pessimistic vibe as we watch the family push themselves further and further away from everyone around them. It's almost as if they have no choice, they either explode or in a sense die like everyone else has, by giving in and settling for a life filled with nothing but the same old routine day after day after day. Haneke's film makes very clear the monotony of the routine, by showing us how this family, like so many families in the real world, does the same thing every morning when the alarm clock goes off. The difference between what Georg and Anna go through as opposed to what most of us go through is that they are ultimately forced to reject this lifestyle.
Like all of Haneke's film, The Seventh Continent isn't "feel good movie of the year" material, but it is very well made and if nothing else it will make you think. The repetitive nature of the first half of the picture and the periodical fading to black might bother those with short attention spans but the pay off is worth it, and the last half of the movie definitely delivers.
71 Fragments Of A Chronology Of Chance:
Hard to describe in terms of narrative, 71 Fragments Of A Chronology Of Chance is a film made up of seventy one different clips/shots/splices assembled in such a way that the seemingly random assembly soon turns into a few different short stories. We learn about a young couple who has taken in a foster child only to find she rejects their love. A young Romanian immigrant boy named Marian makes his way from the country to the city where he tries to live in the subways and make a living as a petty thief and reading comic books whenever he can. A husband and wife, unable to conceive, see the boy on television and are moved by his story, while a college student becomes disenfranchised with his schoolmates who are more interested in gambling than in learning. A woman upset with her father decides to prevent him from seeing her new daughter and a soldier steals sidearms from his troop and sells them on the black market for cash. It is, as the title implies, random acts of 'chance' intertwining to create a larger picture.
Like with The Seventh Continent, Haneke periodically cuts to black, using the darkness as a way of separating the different parts that make up the whole, with snippets of televised news reports tossed in seemingly at random to punctuate the mini-stories that comprise the film. Not everything that Haneke throws at us in this odd hodge-podge of a movie is important to the actual stories but it does serve to ground it all in reality by making reference to (at the time) current evetns such as Michael Jackson's molestation scandal.
As the movie plays out, there are characters that we're meant to relate to and feel for and characters we're not. Marian and the parents who are scorned by their adopted daughter are completely sympathetic and we feel for them while the gun thief is obviously not painted in such a kindly manner and we learn of the consequences of his actions in a rather unorthodox manner.
Like in his other films, Haneke likes to linger on strange, every day objects to the point where it becomes almost punishing for the viewer. This is obviously done on purpose, it's part of his technique and his aesthetic and it's used to interesting effect here. It works in the context of the film, which functions less as a traditional story than as an examination of the media's cold and callous presentation of certain events and how this can trickle down into a society which seems to be very quickly pulling itself apart.
The DVD
The seven films in the boxed set are presented on DVD as follows:
The Piano Teacher: non-anamorphic 1.85.1 widescreen. Funny Games: anamorphic 1.85.1 widescreen.
Code Unknown: non-anamorphic 1.85.1 widescreen.
The Castle: non-anamorphic 1.77.1 widescreen.
Benny's Video: 1.85.1 anamorphic 1.85.1 widescreen.
The Seventh Continent: anamorphic 1.85.1 widescreen.
71 Fragments Of A Chronology Of Chance: anamorphic 1.85.1 widescreen.
As you can see, two of the films in the set have not been enhanced for anamorphic displays, which is unfortunate. Equally disappointing is the fact that there is a fair bit of noticeable ghosting on these transfers, obviously created by a bad PAL to NTSC conversion. While this doesn't render the films unwatchable, it definitely is a problem and it does obscure some of the fine detail in more than a few scenes. Mpeg compression is present but not overpowering though color reproduction looks a bit flat in some scenes. Mild print damage is present in a couple of the older films as well, Code Unknown being the most obvious example. Overall, the films are all watchable but Kino could have and definitely should have put more effort into these transfers.
Sound:The audio options vary a bit from film to film in this set. Specifications are as follows:
The Piano Teacher: Dolby Digital French 2.0 Stereo with optional English subtitles. Funny Games: Dolby Digital German 2.0 Stereo with optional English subtitles.
Code Unknown: Dolby Digital French 2.0 Stereo with burned in English subtitles.
The Castle: Dolby Digital German 2.0 Stereo with optional English subtitles.
Benny's Video: Dolby Digital German 2.0 Stereo with optional English subtitles.
The Seventh Continent: Dolby Digital German 2.0 Stereo with optional English subtitles.
71 Fragments Of A Chronology Of Chance: Dolby Digital German 2.0 Stereo with optional English subtitles.
In terms of the quality of the audio in the set, for the most part things are fine. The English subtitles are easy to read and free of any typos and the dialogue stays clean and clear from one film to the next. There are moments in The Piano Teacher and in Funny Games where the levels are a bit off and the background noise is a bit too loud but this isn't constant throughout either film, merely a minor, sporadic problem.
Extras:Extras are spread out throughout the set with each disc containing its own exclusive supplemental material. Here's what you'll find and where you'll find it:
The Piano Teacher: The main supplement on this disc is a twenty-two minute interview with Isabelle Huppert. Conducted in English, the actress talks about her work on the picture and about her professional relationship with Haneke. She comes across as completely down to Earth and very professional as she talks about her theories on acting and filmmaking and discusses the themes that are part and parcel to the story. Also included are the film's theatrical trailer, alongside menus and chapter stops.
Funny Games: Supplements on this DVD include an eighteen-minute interview with Haneke. Looking very much at ease, the director talks about the impact of violence on society and in the media, how it can affect viewers in certain ways, and how he tried to work with these principals while making Funny Games. Also included are the film's original theatrical trailer, a Haneke filmography in text format, menus and chapter stops.
Code Unknown: This disc is barebones save for a text piece reproducing a letter from Haneke to his producer (an interesting read that does reveal some of the director's intent), trailers the feature and for three other Kino releases, menus and chapter stops.
The Castle: This disc is barebones save for a still gallery, a filmography for the director, menus and chapter stops.
Benny's Video: The primary extra feature on this release is a twenty-minute interview with Haneke recorded in 2005. The director speaks about the mixed reactions that the film has received, what he was trying to say with the picture, and how he feels about the finished product and the impact that it carries. A text filmography, menus and chapter stops are also included.
The Seventh Continent: This disc starts off with a sixteen-minute interview with Haneke who talks about where he got the inspiration from for this picture and how he went about getting the project seen through to completion. He puts it into context alongside some of his other work and does a nice job of talking about this important early work in his filmography. Menus and chapter stops are also included.
71 Fragments Of A Chronology Of Chance: A twenty-three minute interview with Haneke is the primary supplement on this disc and he discusses the film and its origins in a fair bit of detail. Haneke comes across as slightly happier here than in some of the other interviews and he seems to really enjoy the chance to explain his take on this particular film to viewers. As usual, a filmography, menus and chapter stops are also included.
Final Thoughts:If the presentation of the films in this collection was better, The Michael Haneke Collection would certainly rate higher than it does as the movies themselves are quite good, some are even outstanding. Sadly, Kino's transfers leave a lot to be desired and the audio, while serviceable, is nothing to write home about either. The supplements add some nice contextual information to a few of the films but one can't help but feel that there could have been more effort put into this department as well. Consider the set recommended on the strength of the films alone, and hope that some day Kino will see fit to fix the botched transfers. Until then, fans are either stuck with these discs or are going to have to rely on superior imports from Europe to see these fine films.
Ian lives in NYC with his wife where he writes for DVD Talk, runs Rock! Shock! Pop!. He likes NYC a lot, even if it is expensive and loud.
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LOS ANGELES — Alan Thicke's 1980s TV dad credentials were neatly in order on "Growing Pains." His Dr. Jason Seaver was an open-hearted parent and an enlightened husband, working from home to help tend the kids while his wife revived her career.
But Thicke's character anchored a sitcom that was also 1950s-retro, part of television's renewed embrace of the traditional nuclear family after a string of single-parent shows. "Growing Pains" debuted in 1985, one year after "The Cosby Show" showed the old formula could be made new.
While Bill Cosby's NBC series touched on social issues, ABC's "Growing Pains" was pure comfort food about a suburban family with a genial, father-knows-best patriarch, cheerful mom (Joanna Kerns) and a brood that included breakout heartthrob Kirk Cameron as teenager Mike and, in the show's final 1991-92 season, Leonardo DiCaprio.
Thicke, who died Tuesday at age 69, said a 1985 interview with The Associated Press that he wouldn't have pitched a show like "Growing Pains" but suggested it fit the times.
"Ronald Reagan is president and there's no war, maybe that creates an environment for a show like ours," he said.
The Canadian-born TV host, writer, composer and actor died of a heart attack, said Carleen Donovan, who is a publicist for Thicke's son, singer Robin Thicke. She had no further details.
"I spent Monday through Friday for seven important years with Alan Thicke as my 'TV dad,'" Cameron said in a statement. "I'm shocked and truly heartbroken today at the news of his death. Alan was a generous, kind and loving man. I am so blessed to have grown up with him."
Other celebrities who had crossed paths with Thicke, whether through music, acting or simply as friends, expressed their sorrow at news of his death.
"I grew up watching him and got to know him through Robin. He was always so kind to me," John Legend posted on Twitter.
Thicke's fellow Canadians also responded quickly. William Shatner posted on Twitter that he was saddened by his loss, and singer Anne Murray's Twitter post said she was "shocked and devastated," recalling him as a friend and the writer-producer of many of her TV specials.
The Edmonton Oilers weighed in as well. "RIP to one of the great ones, Alan Thicke," was posted on the hockey team's website, with a photo of a youthful Thicke and Wayne Gretzky on the ice.
Born in Ontario, Canada, in 1947, Thicke was nominated for three Emmy Awards for his work in the late 1970s as a writer for Barry Manilow's talk show, and later for a satirical take on the genre in the variety show "America 2-Night."
He composed several popular theme songs, including the original theme for "The Wheel of Fortune" and other shows including "The Facts of Life" and "Diff'rent Strokes."
Perhaps his boldest assault on the U.S. market was as a virtual unknown taking on the King of Late Night, Johnny Carson. "Thicke of the Night" was a syndicated talk-music-and-comedy show meant to go head-to-head against NBC's "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson."
It premiered in September 1983 with great fanfare, boasting an innovative format and regulars including Richard Belzer, Arsenio Hall, Gilbert Gottfried and Fred Willard. But all too quickly, it was evident that Carson wasn't going to be dethroned, and the ambitious "Thicke" disappeared into the night after one season.
"Certainly everything I needed to learn about failure, struggle, damage control, career rehabilitation and ego bashing I learned in that," he said in a 1995 interview with the AP.
He had the satisfaction of seeing his musical skills passed down to son Robin, a successful singer-songwriter and producer who, with brother Brennan, was born to Thicke and the first of his three wives, Gloria Loring.
In an email, Loring described Thicke's passing as "a shock. We were all just together for Thanksgiving. He was funny, talented and deeply devoted to his family."
In the 1990s and beyond, Thicke stayed busy as a celebrity TV host and with guest shots on dozens of series, including "How I Met Your Mother" and, this year, the Netflix series "Fuller House" starring Candace Cameron Bure and the NBC drama "This Is Us."
"You were a part of my family and hockey family. You will be greatly missed. My heart hurts," tweeted Bure, sister to Kirk Cameron.
Thicke was a hockey fan, frequently attending LA Kings games. He took credit for introducing the sport to celebrity friends.
He began playing at age 5, but acknowledged he wasn't very good at it.
"You were expected to play," he said in 1998. "I was never good enough for the big time, but I always had fun at it."
In 2003, Thicke received 30 stitches and lost five teeth after he was struck by a puck while practicing for a celebrity fundraising hockey game. "I won't be playing any leading men roles in the next couple of months," he joked after the accident.
Thicke also leaves a son, Carter, from his marriage to second wife Gina Tolleson. He had been married to Tanya Callau since 2005.


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According to this new post on his blog, Ivo Jansch is announcing that he and the rest of Ibuildings are going to be the Dutch representatives for Zend.
This means that we are going to support the Dutch PHP community with the entire Zend product range, training and support offerings. This is a big step for us, and I think it is a great reward for having provided professional PHP development services over the last years.
Obviously, everyone's excited at the announcement, and here's to hoping only the best for all involved.


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Holiday Accommodation in South West France
We have found 76 properties to book, based on your search for Holiday Accommodation in South West France, France.
Bellevue Manor House Luxury Gites South West France
Holiday Apartment in Birac, Charente, France
Bellevue is a 17th Century manor house set in private grounds of 6 acres surrounded by vineyards and rolling countryside right in the heart of Cognac country.Offering luxurious git...
£ 590.00 - £ 1,460.00 per week
Sleeps: 8
Wheelchair Friendly Accessible
Pres Du Puits Self Catering Gites with Pool Charente-Maritime
Holiday Cottage in Le Grand Chevallon, Charente-Maritime, France
There are 2 comfortable and well equipped self-catering Gites, recently renovated,each sleeping 2,situated in the grounds of a charming Charentais Farmhouse. In addition B&B is av...
£ 105.00 - £ 470.00 per week
Sleeps: 2
Wheelchair Friendly Accessible
Large Self-catering Holiday Home with Heated Swimming Pool Cheniers Archingeay in SW France
Holiday Home in archingeay, Charente-Maritime, France
The IDEAL FAMILY HOLIDAY. With HEATED POOL, SATELLITE TV and WiFi ACCESS.A beautiful, secluded, peaceful, VERY PRIVATE, tastefully converted 18c Charentaise farmhouse set in 2 acre...
£ 600.00 - £ 1,750.00 per week
Sleeps: 12
Tamarisk Self Catering Cottage West France
Holiday Cottage in Dampierre sur Boutonne, Charente-Maritime, France
This comfortable self catering cottage sleeps 2. There are twin beds upstairs with shower/toilet room. Downstairs is sitting area, dining area and equipped kitchen. Bedding supplie...
£ 140.00 - £ 240.00 per week
Sleeps: 2
Pet & Dog Friendly Pets Welcome
Les Volets Bleu Self catering Gite Cottage South West France
Holiday Cottage in Touffailles, Tarn-et-Garonne, France
Our charming,old farmhouse set in a picturesque village of Touffailles, South-West France The property is just five minutes from an excellent boulangerie which will provide you wi...
£ 400.00 - £ 850.00 per week
Sleeps: 2
Meric Gites Le Chai Self Catering Cottage Lot et Garonne region
Holiday Cottage in Dolmayrac, Lot-et-Garonne, France
Meric is a large ancient farmhouse situated near Sainte Livrade in South West France.The gites have a wealth of original features including oak beams and exposed stonewalls. We off...
£ 450.00 - £ 850.00 per week
Sleeps: 5
Wheelchair Friendly Accessible
Nicotiana Gourdon Self Catering Rural France
Holiday Cottage in Fajoles, Lot, France
A super family friendly country hideaway situated in the golden triangle near Sarlat, Gourdon & Rocamadour offering a peaceful and relaxing holiday for all the family and with all...
£ 600.00 - £ 1,100.00 per week
Sleeps: 8
Pet & Dog Friendly Pets Welcome
Wheelchair Friendly Accessible
Les Vieux Chenes Large Self Catering Villa in South West France with Large Pool near Biarritz
Holiday Cottage in Lucq de Bearn nr Pau, Pyrenees-Atlantiques, France
Renovated, Historic, French country farmhouse between Pau and Biarritz with very large swimming pool. Panoramic views of Pyrenees mountains & Jurancon vineyards. Sleeps up to 8. Gr...
£ 550.00 - £ 1,250.00 per week
Sleeps: 8
Secluded Vine-Clad Cottage Close to Central Pyrenees
Holiday Cottage in Between Trie sur Baise and Tournay, Hautes-Pyrenees, France
Ideal 2-5. Picturesque Country Cottage, Southern Gascony. Calm, comfort, self-catering, private. Sunny, south-facing garden. Long s.w. views of central Pyrenees. Perfect for rel...
£ 280.00 - £ 440.00 per week
Sleeps: 5
Chez LuLu Luxury Self Catering Villa Olonzac France
Holiday Home in Olonzac, Herault, France
This beautiful town house is perfectly located right in the centre of Olonzac, the capital of the Minervois wine growing region. Ideal for couples. Within a minute's walk, you will...
£ 285.00 - £ 435.00 per week
Sleeps: 2
Clos des Saveurs Holiday Villa France
Holiday Home in GENSAC, Gironde, France
A stunning holiday house, well dressed and in a wonderful setting. There is a private swimming pool and plenty of space for parking. Set in the heart of French wine country at the ...
£ 1,800.00 - £ 3,000.00 per week
Sleeps: 8
2 bedroom cottage with pool
Holiday Cottage in St JUst France, Charente-Maritime, France
Beaches nearby, huge shared and fenced solar-heated pool, private garden as well as big shared grounds, near Royan, part of a group of 6 cottages. Child friendly with kiddy play ar...
£ 340.00 - £ 925.00 per week
Sleeps: 6
Pet & Dog Friendly Pets Welcome
Le Logis near La Rochelle beaches and pool
Holiday Home in st just, Charente-Maritime, France
Five bedroom property with big grounds and large shared (fenced) pool, beaches nearby. he house has its own private walled garden (wuith bbq and garden furniture) as well as huge s...
£ 720.00 - £ 2,200.00 per week
Sleeps: 7
Pet & Dog Friendly Pets Welcome
Wheelchair Friendly Accessible
Les Martinets Self Catering Holiday Villa Olonzac South France
Holiday Home in Olonzac, Herault, France
Perfectly located in the centre of Olonzac's bustling old market village, easy walking distance of numerous traditional shops, restaurants and cafes.
£ 250.00 - £ 395.00 per week
Sleeps: 2
No 1 The Mews Large Self Catering Dordogne France
Holiday Cottage in Mauzac, Dordogne, France
La Poste Mews is a large, relaxed and family friendly house set in the quiet village of Mauzac-et-Grand-Castang on the banks of the Dordogne River. The house has been refurbished ...
£ 500.00 - £ 1,400.00 per week
Sleeps: 8
Chateau de Rochebonne near La Rochelle
Holiday Home in st just luzac, Charente-Maritime, France
Private pool, private grounds, close to sandy beaches, 8 bedrooms, most unusual, pretty chateau loaded with history
£ 1,285.00 - £ 3,730.00 per week
Sleeps: 14
Pet & Dog Friendly Pets Welcome


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Are you excited for warmer sunny days? Get into spring with these outfit ideas and put your sarongs to good use. Let's think out of the box and explore different ways to use our sarongs aside from the usual beach cover ups, sarong skirts and beach dresses. Whether you're at the city or on a tropical island, here are some cool ideas that we felt you might enjoy:
1) Wedding with Nature
How pretty is this? Imagine having a forest or garden themed wedding. If it gets cold outside, get your bridesmaids to cover up in the same green sarongs as shawls.
2) Casual Jeans with Orange Sarong Skirt
We've never thought of this and liked the idea of tying a sarong around your hips just to give an edge to a casual look!
3) Minimalist Twist
When smoked sarong meets plain top - why not mix and match your smoked sarongs and wear them as long skirts paired with solid colored tops?
4) Bright & Colorful Sarong Tops
Just like flowers that bloom, pick out your brightest colored sarongs and express your personality! We love the idea of pairing a sarong tube top with long pants.
We hope that you got some inspiration from these different ways to wear your sarongs. If you like some of these styles, get your sarongs out and start styling up for this season. You can follow us on Pinterest to browse for more 'sarongspiration'.


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Let's take you back to the afternoon of July 20, 1969. Two Apollo 11 astronauts in a small lunar landing vehicle have one chance to land on the Moon safely. Their landing radar has malfunctioned and the guidance computer is leading them into a field of boulders. The commander has taken manual control of the spacecraft and is trying to set the vehicle down in a safe spot with precious few seconds of fuel remaining. The consequences of running out of fuel before landing would be a disastrous crash, death of the astronauts, and failure of the mission:
HOUSTON: 30 seconds [fuel remaining].
EAGLE: Contact light! OK, engine stop . . . descent engine command override off . . .
HOUSTON: We copy you down, Eagle.
EAGLE: Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed!
HOUSTON: Roger, Tranquility. We copy you on the ground. You've got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We're breathing again. Thanks a lot. "
[source: Transcript of communications between Apollo 11 and NASA Mission Control]
Later that night, astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped off the landing pad of the lunar module onto the surface of the Moon and said, "That's one small step for man . . . one giant leap for mankind." With these words from the Moon and the accomplishments of Apollo 11, the United States fulfilled the challenge presented by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 to be the first nation to put a man on the Moon and return him safely. The mission was a major scientific and technical achievement, a pivotal moment in human history and an event that essentially ended the long space race between the United States and the Soviet Union.
The Space Race Begins
In the latter years of World War II, the Nazi government employed a team of rocket scientists headed by German scientist Wernher von Braun to develop, build and launch the V-2 rocket. The rockets carried explosives and were capable of striking London from their launch site on the Baltic Sea, as well as from mobile launch sites. Adolf Hitler's dream was to have one of these rockets or rockets that are more powerful deliver a nuclear bomb to Allied countries or to the United States. However, rocket technology was not that sophisticated yet, and it was too late in the war for the realization of this dream. In the ending days of the war, von Braun led a group of scientists to surrender to the U.S. Army. With technical information and expertise, as well as captured parts from the Baltic launch sites, von Braun and his scientists began to work for the US Army in White Sands, N.M., to establish a rocket program. This program later relocated to Huntsville, Ala., where it's now the site of NASA Marshall Spaceflight Center.
The Soviet Union also captured some German rocket scientists at the end of the war and took them to Russia where they began a rocket program. A brilliant rocket designer named Sergei Korolev headed the Soviet space program. Both von Braun and Korolev were accomplished scientists and were instrumental in the development of technologies for spaceflight. Their respective colleagues (captured Nazi scientists, American scientists, Soviet scientists) developed new rocket technologies and establish space programs in both countries.
Photo courtesy NASA |
Photo courtesy NASA |
Military leaders on both sides knew the potential of using rockets to deliver warheads across great distances and wanted such advantages for their own countries. Scientists realized the potential for using rockets to deliver satellites to Earth's orbit to study the Earth, as well as use them for the exploration of outer space.
As the rocket programs developed in both the United States and the Soviet Union, scientists from around the world joined together to designate 1957 as the International Geophysical Year, where they would band together to study the Earth. Both the United States and the Soviet Union had announced their intentions to launch satellites to study the Earth from orbit.
Photo courtesy NASA
The launches of these two satellites began the space race. The interest of the American public, a strong sense of national pride, the anti-communism atmosphere of the McCarthy era, and the need for America to maintain a technological edge and superiority all combined to create the space race. Fueled by the Cold War competition and tension between the United States and the Soviet Union, Americans and their leaders felt an urgency to catch up with the Soviets in space technology and to surpass them. It was a matter of national pride.
In 1958, Congress passed the Space Act, which created NASA; the Soviet Union created a similar organization for their space program. The next logical step for both programs was to try to place a man in orbit around the Earth.
Find out who achieved that goal first in the next section.Advertisement
President Kennedy Ups the Ante
The Soviets worked on Project Vostok, their program to put a man in space and ultimately in Earth's orbit. Meanwhile in the United States, NASA began Project Mercury and recruited seven astronauts to train and fly the Mercury spacecraft. The two programs were very different in many respects:
- The Soviet rockets that put Vostok into space were more powerful than the Redstone and Atlas launch vehicles used by the Americans.
- The Soviet program operated in secret, while the American achievements and failures were broadcast on television for the media, the nation and the world to see.
- From a fire in one of their Vostok spacecraft, the Soviets learned that a pure oxygen atmosphere was very dangerous (the fire was not known to the outside world for many years). In contrast, the Americans continued to use pure oxygen atmospheres in their spacecraft.
- The Soviets used a spherical spacecraft in which the cosmonaut was a passenger. The sphere could re-enter the Earth's atmosphere at any attitude without the need for maneuvering thrusters. In contrast, the conical Mercury capsule had to be properly aligned for re-entry with attitude control thrusters that were operated by the astronaut, thereby rendering the astronaut as a true pilot.
- The
Vostok capsule was designed for landing on dry land. The cosmonaut would eject at 7000 meters
altitude and parachute to safety, while the unmanned capsule parachuted to the
ground unoccupied. In contrast, the
Mercury capsule parachuted to a water landing with the astronaut still inside.
Photo courtesy NASA
Both programs continued at feverish paces, but the Soviets became the first to place a man in space. On April 12, 1961, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin not only became the first man in space, but also the first man to orbit the Earth in his Vostok 1 spacecraft. Again, the Soviets hailed this triumphant accomplishment, much to the embarrassment of NASA and the Americans.
Photo courtesy NASA
The United States responded by putting Alan Shepard into space aboard Freedom 7 on May 5, 1961. This brief, 15 minute sub-orbital flight did not match the accomplishment of the Soviets, but put America on track in the space race. Weeks after Shepard's flight, President Kennedy challenged America and committed NASA to sending a man to the Moon and back before the end of the decade; this move clearly escalated the space race with the Soviets. With the direction of then Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, Congress appropriated funds and NASA expanded its programs to achieve President Kennedy's vision.
Photo courtesy NASA
America Begins to Pull Ahead in the Space Race
Photo courtesy NASA
With Project Gemini, the United States quickly began to catch up and pass the Soviets in the space race. The Gemini spacecraft carried two astronauts and could maneuver in space (e.g. change orbits). Over the course of 10 missions, astronauts changed orbits, rendezvoused with other spacecraft, docked with an unmanned Agena rocket and walked in space.
Upon completion of the Gemini program, NASA learned how to fly, live, and work in space for the duration (2 weeks) necessary to send men to the Moon and back.
In contrast, the Soviets flew many unmanned Cosmos missions during this time. Most were aimed at gathering data on prolonged time in space by using animals or gathering orbital data with newly developed spacecraft, Soyuz and Zond.
With the completion of Project Gemini, America clearly had momentum to reach the Moon. Despite the setback of the Apollo 1 fire that killed astronauts Virgil Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee on January 27, 1967, NASA continued to develop and build the Apollo spacecraft and Saturn V rockets to go to the Moon.
In the meantime, the Soviets had developed a powerful N1 rocket with 10 solid rocket boosters attached to it. This rocket never flew because the Soviets had trouble getting all of the boosters to work together. It was also apparent that the United States was closing in on the Moon. So the Soviets instead focused on sending unmanned spacecraft around the Moon, developing automated docking systems, and completing long-duration spaceflight in Earth's orbit.
By the end of 1969, America completed two lunar landing missions, Apollo 11 and 12. The Soviets had sent an unmanned Zond spacecraft around the Moon. America had clearly met President Kennedy's challenge and America had declared itself the winner of the space race because they had beaten the Russians to the Moon. While the United States continued to explore the Moon with the remaining Apollo missions, the Soviets continued developing and testing their Soyuz spacecraft and Salyut space station.
Photo courtesy NASA
Upon completion of the Apollo moon missions in 1972, America now focused on exploring long-duration spaceflight in its Skylab space station program. Despite initial damage to Skylab upon launch, American astronauts repaired and lived in the Skylab in three missions with the final Skylab 4 flight lasting 84 days.
The space race was now over and the United States and the Soviet Union needed to decide what to do next. Their solution: join forces and conquer more of space. Read all about it in the next section.
An Era of Cooperation Begins
After the completion of the space race, it became clear that both space-faring nations might need to cooperate in some manner. To this effect, a joint mission with the Soviet Union was proposed, the Apollo Soyuz Test Project. An Apollo spacecraft carried a special docking module that would enable it to link up with a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft and transfer crewmembers. In 1975, an Apollo spacecraft carrying three astronauts rendezvoused and docked with a Russian Soyuz spacecraft containing two cosmonauts. The crews spent two days together conducting experiments. The flight demonstrated that the two countries could work together in space and set the groundwork for cooperation in the Shuttle/Mir program and in building the International Space Station two decades later.
Photo courtesy NASA
Today, the United States and Russia cooperate to build and operate the International Space Station. Part of this cooperation stems from the success of the Apollo Soyuz Test Project and from the realization that, with the Russian Mir space station, the Russians had accumulated a vast amount of experience in long-duration spaceflight (crews on Mir had endured over a year in space). With the International Space Station, crews consisting of Russian cosmonauts and American astronauts permanently inhabit the space station and switch out on a rotating basis. Crews can be launched aboard the U.S. space shuttle or the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. The space station is re-supplied by the space shuttle and by automated Soyuz and Progress supply ships. Also, a Soyuz spacecraft remains permanently docked at the station as an emergency escape vehicle.
While the Russians and the Americans work together on the International Space Station, another space race is heating up. Find out who's in the running in this 21st century race.
Space Races for the 21st Century
Upon directives from President George W. Bush, NASA has re-examined its goals for future spaceflight. The space shuttle will be retired by 2010. A new spacecraft, the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle is being designed to return Americans to the Moon.
Specifically, NASA is directing its efforts to the following goals:
- Broaden its programs in science, aeronautics and exploration, while focusing the human spaceflight endeavors on exploration.
- Develop, build and fly a new Crew Exploration Vehicle (Project Orion) with its launch vehicles (Ares) by 2014.
- Develop and expand partnerships with private industries.
- Develop a program to return humans to the Moon, establish a lunar base and pursue subsequent exploration of Mars and other destinations.
However, NASA is not alone in this goal. Other nations besides the United States and Russia have entered space.
Photo courtesy NASA
Besides governments, there's a growing space race among private companies to be the first to establish sub-orbital and orbital spaceflights for space tourism. This race began with the Ansari X-prize, which was subsequently won by Scaled Composite's SpaceShipOne (see How SpaceshipOne Works). The success of SpaceShipOne is being developed into a commercial venture called Virgin Galactic by Sir Richard Branson.
In this same spirit, the X-Prize foundation and Google have sponsored the Google Lunar X Prize, a $30 million competition for the first privately funded team to send a robot to the moon, travel 500 meters, and transmit video, images and data back to the Earth.
Such competitions and races as the original space race have brought about new technologies and products such as Mylar and GPS systems. They've developed new spacecraft like SpaceShipOne. And competitions between countries for national pride and between companies for profitable markets will provide incentives for the development of new space technologies and lay the foundations for the future of space exploration.
For more information on the space race, space in general and related topics, shoot over to the next page to see more links.Advertisement
Lots More Information
- How Rocket Engines Work
- How Project Mercury Worked
- How Project Mercury Missions Worked
- How the Gemini Spacecraft Worked
- How the Apollo Spacecraft Worked
- How Lunar Landings Worked
- How Space Stations Work
- How Space Shuttles Work
- How the Orion CEV Will Work
- How NASA Works
- How Virgin Galactic Works
- How SpaceShipOne Works
More Great Links
Sources- 2006 NASA Strategic Plan. http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/142302main_2006_NASA_Strategic_Plan.pdf.
- China's Space Program: An Overview. http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/space/RS21641.pdf
- Mercury-13 the Women of the Mercury Era. http://www.mercury13.com/index.html
- NASA. http://www.nasa.gov
- NASA History Division. http://history.nasa.gov/
- NASA human Spaceflight history http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/history/
- NASA, "Sputnik the Fiftieth Anniversary." http://history.nasa.gov/sputnik/
- NASA, "The Decision to Go to the Moon: President John F. Kennedy's May 25, 1961 Speech before a Joint Session of Congress." http://history.nasa.gov/moondec.html
- NASA "Spinoff Homepage." http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/
- NASA Earth Observatory, "On the Shoulders of Giants: Wernher von Braun." http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/Giants/vonBraun/vonbraun_4.html
- NASA "Before This Decade Is Out..." Chapter 3 Wernher von Braun. http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4223/ch3.htm.
- NASA SP-4209 The Partnership: A History of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, Appendix B -Development of Manned Space Flight, American and Soviet. http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4209/appb.htm
- NASA SP-4209 The Partnership: A History of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4209/toc.htm
- RussianSpaceWeb.com. http://www.russianspaceweb.com/index.html
- The Vision for Space Exploration. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/exploration/main/index.html
- US Centennial of Flight
Commission, "Early Soviet Human Spaceflight Program." http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/SPACEFLIGHT/soviet_
human/SP20.htm - US Centennial of Flight Commission, "The Soviet Race to the Moon." http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/SPACEFLIGHT/soviet_
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What do you get when you hang up a bunch of outdated cell phones, and hook them up to the Internet? Well, you are in luck! James Theophane writes in to share his group's latest project, the Mobile Mobile. Using 50 company phones that had recently been replaced, they created an installation that plays the song "Carol of the Bells". The project is installed at their headquarters, however they also have an interactive streaming interface.
Wondering how one hooks up a bunch of old cell phones to do this kind of project? So were we, and they graciously agreed to fill us in on the details:
The plan was to make 50 mobiles to each play a different note of a Christmas carol, and flash in time. We set up a test mobile phone – an HTC Touch – to connect to a wifi access point whilst being powered by a charger.
We 'ping'ed the IP address of the phone for two days to verify that it would remain contactable. The phone did get a tiny bit warm, but it worked. We noticed that the ping time changed significantly between different power modes on the wifi of the mobile – from 100ms down to about 2ms on 'performance'.
The plan was to write a small program that ran on the phone that understood a small set on instructions and have a controller running on a PC sending the commands. The basic list of commands was: light on/off, change colour 'wash' and beep.
The first challenge was turning the backlight off – WinMobile is a multitasking OS running WindowsCE as the kernel. The power management subsystem allows you to suggest power settings, but the OS takes into account all the running programs needs.
Turning the backlight fully off proved problematic in the project timescales (a matter of days). Next was beeping. The PC has always had a speaker that could beep – it was connected to the chip that controlled the keyboard – so has had a corresponding function e.g. in windows the MessageBeep function.
WindowsCE was designed for a range of platforms and embedded controllers and it looks like beep was not a core function. Luckily the Microsoft developers included some sample code on how to implement a MIDI sound system expecting hardware manufacturers to license third party full musical instrument libraries. It looks like the manufacturers kept with the simple sine wave sample code implementation. This was good enough for our mobile phone beeping musical rendition.
The program on the phone was written in Microsoft .Net C# and consisted of two parts: one registering with a web service – logging the fact that it was still alive and its current IP address, and two a UDP listener – listening for commands from the controller over the network.
The controller was written to read the midi file of the Carol and send the individual notes to individual phones at the right time. Using UDP instead of TCP and the 'performance' setting on the phone meant that the commands arrived promptly on the phones.
6 thoughts on "The Mobile Mobile"
Looks like someone ripped off Vodafone's NZ spot http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3nSoEhY8SM
If you can move it, it's a mobile mobile mobile!
Thats really nice!!!!
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Accelerator Applications for Cancer Therapy Highlighted in Nature Article
April 9, 2014
Technology feature in Nature
"Beams of charged particles can treat cancer more safely and effectively than X-rays. Physicists and biomedical researchers are working to refine the technology for wider use."
So starts a special technology feature in the April 3 issue of Nature—an article that draws in large part on the experts gathered by Brookhaven Lab accelerator physicist Stephen Peggs and Karen McNulty Walsh of the Lab's Media & Communications Office at a symposium on this subject at the 2014 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Like the symposium, the article highlights advances in cancer therapy using protons and other charged particles, the radiobiological rationale for why these treatments should be more effective with fewer side effects, and new accelerator designs that could make this promising treatment more affordable and available to patients around the world.
Peggs is prominently quoted for his role in developing a prototype ion Rapid Cycling Medical Synchrotron in partnership with Best Medical International, and testing out superconducting magnet designs that could make beam-delivery systems more compact and less costly. Other participants in Brookhaven's AAAS session are quoted as well, including Kathryn Held, a radiobiologist at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, who comes to Brookhaven to conduct studies of how charged-particle radiation affects cells at the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory.
McNulty Walsh and Peggs worked with Nature technology editor Vivien Marx to help convey the science and other issues surrounding the transfer of promising accelerator technologies from the realm of fundamental physics to clinical practice and possible cancer cure. You can read Marx's full article here: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v508/n7494/full/508133a.html
2014-4782 | INT/EXT | Newsroom


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Just logged in as server first came up.
Boost to 90 is available on the shop for 60$
Just logged in as server first came up.
Boost to 90 is available on the shop for 60$
good troll attempt since they are not up yet, infact the entire battle.net is down for all game clients just as we speak. so good troll attempt.
Nice. I was hoping for it to be even more than that but 60 isn't that bad I guess.
Hahaha no way anybody is paying 60 dollars.... 20 sound expensive already, at least to me...
This is not a troll attempt, I saw the same thing. I was about to take a screenshot, but all the servers were brought down 2 minutes ago.
Some of the realms went up momentarily but looks like they all went back down and indeed I saw the Level 90 boost available in the shop for $60.00
it was acutally up for about 5 minutes, and everything went offline again. possibly a glitch of bug but it was there under services on the game shop. well see soon whos trolling!
Would be a somewhat appropriate price at least. Not too cheap, but also not overly expensive.
60 dollar confirmed
I would pay up to 30 bucks for a character boost to 90.
Anything more I would just do it the hard way.
3 of 8 comments say it happend, maybe not a shenanigans after all...
Aye, I was just in for about 4 minutes before it kicked me off again


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SEQUOIA NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) -- California authorities say a community college professor from Texas fell to his death while climbing Mount Whitney, which has the highest peak in the U.S. outside of Alaska.
The National Park Service said Friday that search crews recovered the body of 75-year-old Dawson Johnson from the mountain's north slope at an elevation of 13,300 feet on Thursday.
Johnson, of Redwater, Texas, had been hiking with his wife in Sequoia National Park on Tuesday when he decided to take a solo hike to Mount Whitney, where other hikers reported seeing him on a trail that approaches the summit.
After Johnson failed to return to his campsite by the next morning, his wife contacted park rangers to report him missing.
Texarkana television station KTAL says Johnson was a longtime computer technology instructor at Texarkana College.


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BillboardIn its 114th year, Billboard remains the world's premier weekly music publication and a diverse digital, events, brand, content and data licensing platform. Billboard publishes the most trusted charts and offers unrivaled reporting about the latest music, video, gaming, media, digital and mobile entertainment issues and trends. |
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Have You Ordered Your Priorities for the New Year?
By Elisa Pulliam, Crosswalk.com
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord. —Colossians 3:23
The start of a new year is a good time to focus on how to prioritize your relationships, responsibilities, and resources. These priorities will ultimately help you determine a fresh new routine and shape how you spend your time in the future.
Let me illustrate how this works: Imagine having an empty jar that you need to fill with a combination of rocks, pebbles, and sand. All of them are designed to fit in the jar, but you must load them in the proper order or they all won't all fit. Do you know what you should put in first? The rocks, because they take up the most space, followed by the pebbles, which will fall into the empty spaces, before you finally put in the sand, which will slide into the crevices.
My friend, your life is like a jar. Only so much can fit into it, so you need to identify the rocks, pebbles, and sand and put them in the jar in the right order. This has been a struggle for me because I always think my jar is bigger than it is. However, as I've worked toward practicing what I preach, I've been able to parse out my priorities in a way that finally makes sense.
The big rocks are my relationship with God, my husband and children, and family and friends as well as embracing opportunities to share the gospel and God's love with others.
The pebbles pertain to details: caring for my home, work, other ministry responsibilities, and taking care of my health.
And the sand, well, that's the laundry, chores, and challenges I'd rather ignore but must fit into my life.
While my priorities may not reflect yours, identifying them has given me the freedom to allow baskets of clean laundry to sit in the den, like jets lined up on the tarmac, without a shred of guilt. And that, my friend, is a miracle.
You see, for too many years, I thought I was a failure as a housekeeper because I couldn't stay on top of the laundry folding. No matter how well I stuck to my routine of tossing a new load into the washer each morning and making sure it hit the dryer cycle by dinnertime, inevitably I left those freshly dried clothes abandoned for days on end.
I finally let go of the guilt when I accepted that the reason wasn't my lack of ability but rather my priorities—an intentional choice. I chose to spend more time on other things because I believed that having clean laundry was just as good as having folded clean laundry . . . and the unfolded loads could wait there for a while without hurting anyone. I accepted that folding laundry was sand and not rocks in my jar. Mind you, it's still a responsibility that I will get to, but it's not the priority I had once thought it needed to be.
Depending upon the chaos of the week, and the unexpected crisis of the day, I might let the laundry go, allow the dishes to pile up in my sink, and put off scrubbing the tub until it's absolutely necessary.
I have decided that those are the tasks that can wait, at least for a few hours or more, while I work on something that's more important.
Which of your responsibilities is a source of guilt or condemnation? Could that guilt be misplaced? Or is it time to shake up your priorities?
The truth is that we all have something, or someone, waiting on us.
Maybe it's the pile of junk mail taking up priceless real estate on the kitchen counter. Or the school paperwork waiting to be read, signed, and returned. Or a boss who wants the project summary turned in yesterday. At the heart of the matter, the issue is not what's waiting, but why it's waiting.
Ironically, in life coaching, we're never supposed to ask why because it automatically puts a person on the defensive. If I came right out and asked, "Why haven't you done _____________?," you might feel as though I'd overstepped a few boundaries. So let me pose the question in a different way: Is there something or someone waiting on you because you're avoiding your responsibilities?
If you search for the answer to that question, you'll uncover your priorities and begin to see the core thinking that's influencing your daily habits.
It's really a heart thing.
When we consider what's been left undone in a day, we need to figure out if we're being neglectful or intentional. In other words, are we pursuing the opportunities God is laying before us—or running from them? Are we embracing the work He has for us or rejecting it?
Yes, work. See, God has designed us to work, which is about so much more than simply what we get paid to do. All of our responsibilities, whether folding laundry, reading to a child, running a ministry, or attending a business meeting, are work in God's eyes. Our work is what we put our hands to—the tasks we love and hate, the ones we've chosen, and the ones we can't get out of doing.
This work matters much to God, regardless of how the world perceives or receives it.
Your work is significant not because of the outcome but because of the motive—meaning the state of your heart—whether you're washing one more dish, completing one more spreadsheet, or matching one more pair of socks.
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. (Colossians 3:23–24)
Would you agree that if all of your work is to be done for the glory of God, then anyone else for whom you do it matters a lot less?
Your work is holy when you're doing it for the glory of God.
Those very people you devote your time to serving—whether family, friends, colleagues, or strangers—move into a priority position in your life, not because they deserve it, but because you see them through the lens of God's love and His desires for their eternal good. This shift in thinking considers time and work under God's sovereign purposes rather than our willy-nilly wishes, which is exactly what Henry and Richard Blackaby write about in Experiencing God. They suggest that we shift our focus so that we can "watch to see where God is working and join Him!"
What a liberating way of living!
After more than a decade of living this way, I can promise that God will open your eyes to see His work simply because you ask Him. You'll also discover that your work won't look like anyone else's. Can you imagine how that could relieve the guilt you live with all too often?
God's glorious work is set apart for you and me.
His work. His timing. His purposes. God wants to establish all of your work according to how He made you.
So imagine if when your feet hit the floor in the morning, you said to God, Show me Your work today, Lord. I want to join You in it! Imagine waking up to God's fresh new mercies and asking Him how you should tend to your responsibilities, relationships, and resources, because you trust His holy purposes, even when the tasks may be as mundane as laundry folding, tub scrubbing, or setting a meeting agenda with a new client.
The mundane will become holy when it's done for the glory of God.
This excerpt is from Meet the New You: A 21-Day Plan for Embracing Fresh Attitudes and Focused Habits for Real Life Change by Elisa Pulliam. Used by permission of WaterBrook Press, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Elisa Pulliam is passionate about women experiencing a life transformed by God for the sake of impacting the next generation—a mission fueled by God's redeeming work in her life and 20-plus years in youth and women's ministry. She's the founder of moretobe.com, serves as the Executive Director of kingdomhearts.us, and is a life coach, coach trainer, and speaker. However, she considers her greatest roles as wife to Stephen and mom to four amazing children at their home in New York. Connect with Elisa at elisapulliam.com.


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Detroit Pistons Draft Dreams: Bismack Biyombo
A relatively unknown international big man has captured the hearts and minds of Pistons fans. For the last two weeks, I've been bombarded with comments and Tweets from people who want to see me feature Bismack Biyombo in Draft Dreams. The guy has a lot of buzz right now because he showed out at the Nike Hoops Summit, and Pistons fans were clearly paying attention. Draft Dreams is for the people, so I'll stop denying the people what they want. Here's your Biyombo profile.
Measurables: 6-foot-9, 240 pounds, F/C from Congo
Key stats: 6.4 points, 5.3 rebounds, 2.3 blocks per game while shooting 55 percent from the field in the Spanish League
Projected: Lottery
How would he help the Pistons?
Biyombo's combination of age (he'll be only 19 when drafted), size (6-foot-9/240 and still growing) and physical attributes (7-foot-7 wingspan) make him perhaps the most intriguing prospect in this draft. He played all over Europe and the Middle East trying to make a name for himself, eventually earning an invite to the famed Nike Hoops Summit. He became the biggest star of the tournament, registerting a the first triple double in tournament history with 12 points, 11 rebounds and 10 blocked shots.
Biyombo has a NBA build already at his young age. He's possibly the most natural shot blocker in the draft, something the Pistons are clearly deficient in. And pairing Greg Monroe next to a young, talented, defensive-minded center would give the Pistons arguably the most promising young frontcourt in the league.
How wouldn't he help the Pistons?
Biyombo is certainly a bit of a risk. Before the Nike Hoops Summit, many scouts barely knew who he was, if they even knew him at all (NBADraft.net doesn't even have him in their database as of my writing this). He has less than two years of professional basketball experience overseas. He also is under contract with his team in Spain, so even though he wants to play in the NBA, there's no guarantee that he'll join the team that drafts him for next season. Here's what he told DraftExpress:
""The lockout is not worrying me," Biyombo told us. "If there is a lockout, I can continue to play in Spain. I want to make a mark before I leave Spain. When I decided to enter the draft I spoke to my agent Igor [Crespo], and I said, 'Igor, before I leave Spain, I want to put my name on the basketball court. So when I leave Spain my name will be remembered the right way.' About the NBA, I still have time to be on the floor, still have time to work, still have time to make myself better.""
I respect the maturity, but he also sounds like a player who is in no rush to leave Spain before he's comfortable. Maybe he's talented enough to be worth waiting for if he decides to stay in Europe, but the Pistons also need immediate help through the draft if they are going to improve next season.
What are others saying?
"He certainly has a long way to go offensively, but Biyombo's freakish athleticism and NBA body immediately catch your eye. He's only been playing organized basketball for five or six years, but he seems to have a feel for the game and is certainly a presence on the block."
"Over the course of the last month or so he's become one of the hottest names in the NBA draft, but only a handful of scouts and GMs had a good handle on who he was. Seeing him playing against future NBA lottery picks certainly helped.And they weren't disappointed. Biyombo wowed all week with his toughness, athleticism, shot-blocking abilities, leadership and motor. He was a defensive powerhouse with a Ben Wallace-esque body and a crazy 7-foot-7 wingspan."
"Biyombo, like most of the game's participants, is listed at 18 years old, but he's played professionally in Spain for two seasons, has a massive, sculpted NBA-ready body right now and looked like a man among boys all week, drawing speculation from scouts, fans and media alike about whether he is older than he lets on. Biyombo brushed off the age question in an interview with SI.com."I don't care how old he is, Biyombo can play NBA-caliber defense right now," one NBA talent evaluator said on Sunday.That was the general consensus. Biyombo is ready now, his stock solidified as a 2011 first round pick, with the immediate buzz in the building included the NBA's L-word: Lottery."


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Create a Website Account - Manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and more.
While there is no limit to the cause or causes of death, there are only five manners of death. These manners of death listed and defined here are the only manners of death and are recognized as such in every state in our great country.
The death was caused by the actions of another person. Many people, including the media, confuse the terms homicide and murder. Murder is a criminal charge or the unlawful taking of a human life by another.
After the medical examiner determines the manner of death to be a homicide, then law enforcement investigate that death to determine if there is probable cause to bring the criminal charge of murder against the person who caused the death. While all murders are homicides, not all homicides are murders. If a homeowner, fearful for his or her life, kills an intruder or a law enforcement officer kills someone in the line of duty, both are considered homicides but not necessarily murder.
The death was from diseases or medical conditions such as cancer or heart attack.
A death that is unintended.
A death that is intentionally self-inflicted.
There is little or no evidence to establish, with medical certainty a cause of death.


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The number of calories a person eats directly influences the performance of different cells. A group of researchers from the University of São Paulo (USP) has shown that low-calorie meals have a protective effect against some diseases.
Some of these studies were presented on Day One of FAPESP Week London, taking place February 11-13, 2019.
The studies were conducted under the auspices of the Center for Research on Redox Processes in Biomedicine (Redoxome — one of the Research, Innovation and Dissemination Centers (RIDCs) funded by São Paulo Research Foundation — FAPESP.
"We are looking at how changes to the diet affect metabolism and how that ends up changing the odds of having diseases associated with aging," said Alicia Kowaltowski, a professor at the USP Chemistry Institute (IQ-USP).
One of the group's experiments on mice shows how a low-calorie diet can protect the brain from neuronal cell death associated with diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, epilepsy and cerebral vascular accident (CVA).
The mice were divided into two groups. The researchers calculated the average number of calories the group with no caloric restrictions would eat and then fed the other group 40% fewer calories. After 14 weeks, mice belonging to the two groups were given an injection containing a substance known to cause seizures, damage and neuronal cell death.
While the animals in the group that had no dietary restrictions had seizures, the animals whose calories had been restricted did not. The researchers then studied what occurred in vitro. To do that, they isolated the organelles of the brains of the mice, which were also divided into two groups: those that had unrestricted diets and those that had restricted diets. When calcium was introduced to the medium, they noted that uptake was greater in the mitochondria belonging to the group that had ingested fewer calories.
Mitochondria are the organelles responsible for energy generation in cells. In the case of the mice subjected to a calorie restricted diet, mitochondria increased the calcium uptake capacity in situations where the level of that mineral was pathologically high.
In the pancreas, caloric restriction has shown to be capable of improving cell response to increased levels of blood glucose. The researchers reached this conclusion after conducting experiments using beta cell cultures that remain in the pancreatic islets and are responsible for producing insulin.
Blood serum from mice subjected to a variety of diets, similar to the study on the effects of caloric restriction on neurons, was used to nourish the cells cultivated in vitro.
In the cells treated with the serum of animals that ate fewer calories, insulin secretion through the beta cells occurred normally: low when glucose was low and high when glucose was elevated. This did not occur in the animals that ate more calories (and became obese). The experiment showed that there may be a circulating blood factor that acutely modifies beta cell function.
Researchers have again raised the hypothesis of whether the phenomenon is related to the mitochondria, since insulin secretion depends on the availability of ATP (adenosine triphosphate, the molecule that stores energy) in the cell.
When they measured oxygen consumption by the two groups of cells, they observed that it was higher in cells that received serum from animals subjected to caloric restriction. Since respiration is responsible for the release of insulin during peak glucose, it was a sign that the cells generated more ATP under that condition.
Other experiments have also shown that the mitochondria of cells treated with serum from animals subjected to caloric restriction exchanged more material with each other, which made them more efficient (read more at http://agencia.fapesp.br/25646/).
Healthy aging
Kowaltowski pointed out that understanding how metabolism works is essential for preventing and curing metabolic diseases like obesity. It is well-known that being obese is one of the prognostic factors of unhealthy aging.
"Obese individuals are much more likely to have age-related diseases. This includes neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's, proliferative diseases like cancer, and metabolic diseases themselves, such as Type 2 diabetes, hyperlipidemia, heart attack and CVA. Obese people have a higher incidence of all of these," said the researcher.
By preventing obesity, we can prevent these diseases. However, the worldwide epidemic has not diminished even with constant warnings about the need for balanced nutrition and physical activity.
"That's why if we try to understand the mechanisms through which obesity increases those diseases, we will have more tools to fight and prevent them," Kowaltowski added.
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